DAY 94 - WILPENA SA

WILPENA SA

DAY 94

RAWNSLEY PARK - WILPENA

28.81 km

Total Time: 09.10 – 12.20 (3h 10m)

Time on Bike: 2h 03m 15s

Max. Speed: 40.6 km/h

Av. Speed: 14 km/h


First things first, and I must indulge an outburst of name dropping to begin this posting.

I’ve just spent this evening hanging out with movie stars – well at least for the purposes of this gossip column I have.

Bryan Brown and Rachel Griffiths were in person at Wilpena Pound Resort tonight.

A movie is presently being shot on location at a station about 7 kilometres north of Rawnsley Park.

Bryan Brown is one of the most famous Aussie actors of the past 30 years and he and his wife Rachel Ward are at the helm in this film.

It has been tight lipped about who else may or may not be in it, so I can reveal here and now that Rachel Griffiths is a definite starter.

I will probably be hanging about tomorrow as well, so watch this space for more….

Who needs movie stars anyway when I’m on my own path to notoriety?

I did a photo shoot and interview with a pair of Italian photo-journos today.

Nothing planned about it – just some foreign journalists travelling through Outback Australia and thought I may be quite worthy of a small piece.

It was a welcome respite from my misery at the time.

A foul, foul wind with and angry, angry soul has been howling in from the west for the past 48 hours and there was no saving my sorry existence from its wrath this morning.

I’d had enough and together with the relentless uphill grind of the Central Flinders, turning around and heading back was not such a remote idea.

Pitiful I know, but hitting the wall is just something you have to do sometimes.

And just at the height of my fug is often when things just seem to swing around for the better.

Today was no different, as I had actually pulled in to sign into the Flinders Ranges National Park and dispense with my entry fee.

The touring SUV then pulled in right alongside and out popped Romy and Antonio with cameras and notebooks poised in my direction and this is how it happened.

If this wasn’t enough to spur me on, the run into Wilpena suddenly took off downhill and a booming tailwind to boot.

And if this wasn’t enough again, a pair of dear motherly passing travellers rightly took pity on my final 4 km of headwind into Wilpena and generously served me up with sandwiches and soup on arrival.

Phew.

That was some day alright.

There was also a short 2-hour hike involved this afternoon but I think the real hiking must wait until tomorrow and just a little more on the real deal of what this area of Wilpena is all about.